The Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) is being played up as a success by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government, both in the state and the Centre. This received a fillip on Sunday, when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh laid the foundation stones of two establishments that are expected to generate employment in an electoral battleground state.
The foundation for the two units was laid in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The first of them is a Defence Technology and Test Centre (DTTC) that sprawls over 22 acres and is expected to accelerate the growth of the defence and aerospace manufacturing clusters in Uttar Pradesh. The DTTC will consist of the following six subcentres:
1. Deep-Tech Innovation and Start-up Incubation Centre
2. Design and Simulation Centre
3. Testing and Evaluation Centre
4. Centre for Industry 4.0/Digital Manufacturing
5. Skill Development Centre
6. Business Development Centre
The second facility, which was announced by BrahMos Aerospace, is a modern, state-of-the-art BrahMos missile manufacturing centre in the Lucknow node of the UPDIC. The facility will cover over 200 acres and produce the new BrahMos-NG (Next Generation) variant, which is an improvement over the current missile.
The defence ministry stated on Sunday that the new BrahMos manufacturing centre would be built over the next two-to-three years. He said it would commence production at the rate of 80-100 BrahMos-NG missiles per year.
Meanwhile, BrahMos Aerospace has initiated work on a new, more advanced variant of the missile --- the BrahMos-NG. This new missile is smaller, lighter and smarter, and is designed for use on land, sea, underwater and air. It is intended to boost the Indian military’s combat capability and flexibility in the next few years.
Congratulating the scientists and engineers of DRDO and BrahMos Aerospace, Rajnath Singh expressed confidence that the two units will play a pivotal role in bolstering national security, defence production as well as the economy of Uttar Pradesh.
Rajnath said the “Defence Technology and Test Centre” would provide the technological base to develop defence products keeping in mind the young innovators and startups in Amausi region of Uttar Pradesh.
Terming the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile as the world's best and fastest precision-guided weapon, he said it had strengthened India's deterrence in the 21st century.
On BrahMos-NG, the defence minister said the more advanced missile system, which had proven its worth on land, water and air, would greatly strengthen the Indian military’s combat capability in the coming years.
He said the UPDIC has opened up new avenues for all-round technological progress of UP and is providing employment opportunities for the youth of the region. “At the time of its inauguration, we had estimated an investment of Rs 3,732 crore. Investment of more than Rs 1,400 crore has already been received and the process is progressing rapidly,” he said.
Rajnath Singh also declared that India had attained a respectable position in the field of defence technology. He said it had mastered the development of state-of-the-art missile systems in the last few years.
Speaking on the occasion, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath thanked Rajnath Singh for MoD initiatives such as UPDIC, holding DefExpo-2020 in Lucknow, and establishing a unt of Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) in Jhansi.
Speaking on the occasion, DRDO chief Dr G Satheesh Reddy thanked the defence minister for making land available for the DTTC. He thanked the UP chief minister for providing 200 acres of land for the BRAHMOS manufacturing centre.
The state-of-the-art Defence Technologies and Test Centre is being set up to implement the MoU exchanged between Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) and DRDO during DefExpo-2020 at Lucknow.
The DTTC at Lucknow aims to follow the design-build-test-learn cycle for technology consultancy and handholding of the Deep-Tech start-ups and industries.
The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile system is billed by New Delhi and Moscow as one of the world’s most successful missile programmes. Designed and developed by an Indo-Russian joint venture entity, BrahMos Aerospace, the BrahMos cruise missile continues to evolve as the most versatile weapon in its genre, stated the MoD today.
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